I rocked him to sleep and put him in bed. His arms fell from my neck;
half aroused, he nestled his face to mine--kissed me. I went into the
next room, to finish a shirt I was making for him, and I shut the door,
fearing the noise of the machine would wake him. I sewed half an hour,
and--when I went back, the bed was empty, my child was gone.

"I think I went utterly mad then. I can remember putting my lips to the
dent on the little ruffled pillow, where his head had lain, and
swearing that I would have my revenge.

"That night turned me to stone; every tender feeling seemed to petrify.
When I learned that Allen was soon to marry the woman for whom he had
cast me off, and that my boy was to have a new mother to teach him to
hate me, it did not grieve me; I had lost all power of suffering; but
it woke up a legion of fiends where my heart used to beat, and I bided
my time. Happy women in happy homes think me a monster. With their
husbands' arms around them, and their babies prattling at their knees,
they bear my wrongs so meekly, and shudder at my depravity. When I
thought of Allen, who was my first and last and only love, giving my
place to some other woman, who was no more worthy than I knew myself to
be; and of the baby, who had slept on my heart, and was so dear because
he had his father's eyes and his father's brown curls, growing up to
deny and condemn his innocent but disgraced mother, it was more than I
could bear. I was not insane; oh, no! But I was possessed by more than
seven devils; and revenge was all this world could give me. My
husband's family had ruined me; so I would spoil their match a second
time.

"The wedding was to be very private, but I bribed a servant and got
into the house, and stood behind the damask curtains. Allen's mother
and sister came in, leading my boy; and they were so close to me I
could see the long silky lashes resting against my baby's brow, as his
great brown eyes looked wonderingly at a horseshoe of roses dangling
from the chandelier. Then my husband, my handsome husband--my darling's
father, walked in, with the bride on his arm, and the minister met
them, saying: 'Dearly beloved--.' I ceased to be a woman then, I was a
fury, a wild beast--and two minutes later my darlings were mine once
more, safe from that other woman--dead at my feet. Then the ball I
aimed at my own breast missed its destination. I fell on my slaughtered
idols; seeing in a bloody mist the wide eyes of my baby